Thursday, May 12, 2022

2022: Zahawi - Zamindar

Zahawi, Jamil Sidqi al-

Zahawi, Jamil Sidqi al- (Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi) (1863-1936).  Arab poet, scholar and philosopher of Kurdish descent from Iraq.  He associated with the Young Turks, was opposed to the Wahhabis and an ardent champion of the emancipation of women.  He is also celebrated as a Persian poet.

Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi was a prominent Iraqi poet and philosopher. He is regarded as one of the greatest contemporary poets of the Arab world and was known for his defense of women's rights.

Zahawi was born in Baghdad. His father, of Iraqi Kurd origin, was the Mufti of Iraq and a member of the Baban clan. His mother was a Turkmen. He lived in Baghdad, then left for Istanbul, then to Jerusalem to complete his studies.

During the Ottoman era he held numerous positions: as a member of the Baghdad Education Council, where he championed education for women; as an editor of the only newspaper in Baghdad, al-Zawra; as a member of the Supreme Court in Yemen and Istanbul; as a professor of Islamic philosophy at the Royal University and as a professor of literature at the College of Arts in Istanbul. After Iraq's independence in 1921, he was elected to parliament twice and appointed to the upper chamber for one term.

He was one of the leading writers in the Arab world, publishing in the major newspapers and journals of Beirut, Cairo, and Baghdad. In the 1930s, because of his political views, he was marginalized by the political establishment.

Jamal Sidqi al-Zahawi see Zahawi, Jamil Sidqi al-


Zahedi, Ardeshir

Ardeshir Zahedi (b. October 16, 1928, Tehran, Persia [now Iran] – d. November 18, 2021, Montreux, Switzerland).  An Iranian politician and diplomat who served as the country's foreign minister from 1966 to 1971, and its ambassador to the United States and the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s.

Born in Tehran, Ardeshir Zahedi was the son of Fazlollah Zahedi and his wife, Khadijeh Pirnia. Fazlollah Zahedi, was general who served as prime minister after participating in the CIA-led coup which led to the fall of Mohammed Mossadegh, and his wife Khadijeh Pirnia.

Zahedi received a degree in agriculture from Utah State University in 1950, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma. Seven years later, he married the daughter of the Shah of Iran, Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi.  The marriage ended in divorce in 1964.

Zahedi served as ambassador to the United States from 1960 to 1962 and to the United Kingdom from 1962 to 1966.  Under Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveida, Zahedi served as minister of foreign affairs from 1966 to 1971.

Zahedi again became ambassador to the United States from 1973 until the Iranian Revolution climaxed in January 1979. During his second stint in Washington, he won a reputation for extravagance. In the mid-1970s, Zahedi became known as a companion of the American actress Elizabeth Taylor.  During the 1977 Hanafi Siege of a federal building in Washington, Zahedi and two other ambassadors from Muslim nations were able to talk the hostage-takers into surrendering and releasing 149 hostages.

Over the course of 1978, it was reported in some circles that Zahedi urged the Shah to appease the rioters by making scapegoats of several high-ranking officials, including Amir Abbas Hoveida (then Prime Minister) and SAVAK director Nematollah Nassiri.  When the Shah left Iran in 1979, Zahedi was still serving as ambassador in Washington, but resigned as soon as Khomeini came to power. He started fervent attempts at securing political asylum for the ailing Shah and the Imperial family in Panama, Mexico, Morocco and finally Egypt. He was present at the Shah's death bed and funeral in Cairo in 1980. 

Zahedi lived in retirement in Montreux, Switzerland. He received many awards and honors from nations around the globe for his humanitarian service and record in international affairs.

In an interview in May 2006, Zahedi voiced his support for Iran's Nuclear Program asserting that it as an "inalienable right of Iran", under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).  Zahedi told Voice of America that the United States approved the start of Iran's $50 billion nuclear program in the 1970s. Two documents in particular, dated April 22, 1975 and April 20, 1976, show that the United States and Iran held negotiations on a nuclear program and the United States was willing to help Iran by setting up uranium enrichment and fuel reprocessing facilities.

Ardeshir Zahedi died in Switzerland on November 18, 2021, at the age of 93.



Zahir al-Din al-Mar‘ashi, Sayyid
Zahir al-Din al-Mar‘ashi, Sayyid (Sayyid Zahir al-Din al-Mar‘ashi).  Persian statesman and historian of the fifteenth century.  He composed a chronicle of Tabaristan from the earliest times to 1476.  
Sayyid Zahir al-Din al-Mar'ashi see Zahir al-Din al-Mar‘ashi, Sayyid


Zahir Ghazi, al-Malik al-
Zahir Ghazi, al-Malik al- (al-Malik al-Zahir Ghazi) (Az-Zahir Ghazi) (1172-1215/October 8, 1216). Ayyubid prince.  He was the second son of Saladin, who made him ruler of Aleppo in 1186.  During the wars with the Crusaders he loyally assisted his father and later his brother al-Malik al-Afdal, the ruler of Damascus., and his uncle al-Malik al-‘Adil, the ruler of Egypt and, after al-Afdal had been deposed, of Damascus.  He played an energetic part in the fighting for Acre and Jaffa.  In 1198, he recognized al-‘Adil’s suzerainty.

Az-Zahir Ghazi was governor and then ruler of Halab (now Aleppo) from 1186 (A.H. 581) to 1216 (A.H. 613). He was the third son of Saladin and his lands included northern Syria and a small part of Mesopotamia.

In 1186, az-Zahir's father appointed him governor of Aleppo, Mosul and supporting areas which had recently been taken from the Zengids. At the same time his two older brothers were appointed, respectively, as governor of Syria (al-Afdal) and Egypt (al-Aziz). The lands that az-Zahir received had been under the control of his uncle, Saladin's brother al-Adil, and al-Adil took an avuncular interest in az-Zahir. As the third son, when he inherited in 1193 he was to owe suzerainty to his eldest brother, al-Afdal, in Damascus. However, he failed to do so, and he conducted his affairs independently from his brothers.

In 1193, faced with the on-going revolt of the Zengid 'Izz al-Din in Mosul, he called upon his uncle, al-Adil, to provide the forces to suppress the revolt, which was quickly quelled. In 1194 az-Zahir received Latakia as part of a settlement in which he recognized al-Afdal's authority. However, by 1196 al-Afdal had proved himself incompetent as a ruler, and had lost the support of his uncle, al-Adil. Az-Zahir joined with his brother al-Aziz and uncle al-Adil in deposing and exiling al-Afdal. In October 1197, noting that Amalric of Lusignan had retaken the port at Beirut and that Bohemond III of Antioch was threatening the ports of Latakia and Jableh, az-Zahir destroyed the ports. Although Bohemond took the two locations, they were no longer advantageous, and he soon withdrew. At which point az-Zahir reoccupied them, and rebuilt the fortress at Latakia.

While ruler in Aleppo, az-Zahir kept many of his father's advisors. He appointed Baha ad-Din as a qadi ("judge") in Halab. He brought the unorthodox as-Suhrawardi to Halab, but was forced to imprison him in 1191 due to the demands of the orthodox ulama ("men of learning").

When al-Aziz died in Egypt in 1198 and was succeeded by his son Malik al-Mansur, a boy of twelve, al-Aziz's ministers, worried about the ambitions of al-Adil, summoned al-Afdal from exile to act as Regent of Egypt in the name of his young nephew. Early in the next year, while al-Adil was in the north suppressing an Artuqid rebellion, al-Afdal and az-Zahir came together in alliance and were joined by most of the other Ayyubid princes. Together they besieged Damascus, but as it held out for several months az-Zahir, as did other Ayyubid princes, lost interest and withdrew his troops. Al-Adil was not pleased and after conquering Egypt, he returned and reduced az-Zahir's territories to the area around Aleppo, forcing him to recognize overarching al-Adil suzerainty. During the last decade of his life he skirmished with crusaders and lent his army to support other Ayyubid princes. In 1206, King Leo of Cilicia defeated az-Zahir forces at the Battle of Amq, but was unable to secure any permanent advantage against Aleppo. In 1207, the French attacked and besieged Homs and its emir, an Ayyubid prince called Mujadid Shirkuh II, appealed to az-Zahir, whose troops lifted the siege.

Prior to his death in 1216, Az-Zahir appointed his younger son Malek al-Aziz Mohammed (b. 1213) to succeed him.
Malik al-Zahir Ghazi, al- see Zahir Ghazi, al-Malik al-
Zahir Ghazi, Az- see Zahir Ghazi, al-Malik al-
Az-Zahir Ghazi see Zahir Ghazi, al-Malik al-


Zahiriyya
Zahiriyya (al-Zahiriyya). Name of a school of law, which would derive the law only from the literal text (in Arabic, zahir) of the Qur’an and Sunna.  Founded by Dawud ibn Khalaf, it spread in Iraq, Persia and Khurasan.  In Spain, it was codified by Ibn Hazm, who remained practically isolated.  Only in the reign of the Almohad Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub al-Mansur was the Zahiri school recognized as the state code.

Ẓāhirī is a school of thought in Islamic jurisprudence and Aqida. The founder of this school was Daud ibn Khalaf (d. 270/883),[1] better known as Daud al-Zahiri because of his insistence on sticking to the manifest (zahir) or literal meaning of expressions in the Qur'an and the Sunnah; the school and its followers are called Zahiriyah.

Among the textual evidence for their claim, the Zahirists use verses similar to "...this is a clear Arabic language" (Quran 16:103) to back their view. Anyone, in their understanding, possessing knowledge of the Arabic language is able to understand the message of God inasmuch is necessary to fulfill his religious duties.

However, it should be known that the name Zahiri itself is not endorsed by the adherents of this method, using other textual proof to suggest that there is no name to be known by except what has been mentioned thereby in the religious texts. God said, "He named you submitters [Arabic muslimeen) from before and in this." (Quran 22:76) Ibn Hazm, a well-known practitioner and teacher of this school, would refer to himself and those who followed this view as ashab al-zahir, or "the people of the literal sense," defining rather than labeling.

In history the Zahiri understanding has been persecuted by those preferring to interpret the texts by their inward meanings; this happened to such an extent that many of the scholars of Sunni and Shi'ite sects have labeled the Zahiri school extinct, but it is not clear that this is the case.

The modern Salafi movement can be described as influenced by the Zahiri school.

The famous quotation "Satan was the first to do Qiyas" is commonly used.


Zahir, Mohammed
Zahir, Mohammed (Mohammad Zahir)  (Mohammed Zahir Shah)  (Mohammed Zahir) (Muhammad Zahir) (Zahir Shah) (October 16, 1914, Kabul, Afghanistan - July 23, 2007, Kabul, Afghanistan).  King of Afghanistan.  Zahir was born into the Pashtun Barakzai dynasty of Afghanistan.  He was a descendant of Sardar Muhammad Khan, the half brother of Dost Muhammad.  His great grandfather, Yahya Khan was responsible for the mediation between Yaqub Khan and the British during the Gandomak Negotiations which is known as the Gandomak Treaty.  After the signing of the treaty, Yaqub Khan and Yahya Khan fled to British India.  His Pashtun heritage and his preference of the Persian (Farsi) language gave him credibility with the two most important groups of the country.  The Pashto-speaking tribes of the south and the Farsi-speaking elite of Kabul.  Zahir Shah was educated in France, where he observed the democratic process and brought back progressive ideas that would be implemented over the course of his reign.  He spoke fluent Pashto, French, English and Italian.

Zahir married Homairah Begum on November 7, 1931.  They would have six sons and two daughters.

On November 8, 1933, Zahir was proclaimed king after the assassination of his father, Mohammed Nadir Shah, which he witnessed.  For the first twenty years, Zahir did not effectively rule, ceding power to his paternal uncles.  Between 1933 and 1963, the king was dominated by his uncles and his cousin Mohammad Daud.  They ruled while he reigned.  When Zahir finally took over the government, he introduced several reforms, including, in 1964, a new constitution.  Zahir instituted programs of political and economic modernization, ushering in a democratic legislature, and education for women.  These reforms put him at odds with the religious militants who opposed him.  However, he started an anti-Persian program to popularize the Pashtu language which resulted in failure.

Zahir was also known for being an ethno-centric during his rule.  Most government officials and members of parliament were from Pashtun origin and Pashtuns had more privilege than non-Pashtuns which resulted into the creation of anti-government movements and parties, for instance Sitam Milli headed by Tahir Badakhshi, Abdur Rahman Mahmoudi's movement and many more.  By the time Zahir returned to Afghanistan, in the 21st century of the Christian calendar, his rule had been characterized by a lenghty span of peace.

In 1973, Zahir's cousin and former prime minister, Mohammad Daud staged a coup d'etat and established a republican government while Zahir was in Italy undergoing eye surgery for lumbago.  As a former prime minister, Mohammad Daud had been fired by Zahir a decade earlier.  Following this coup, Zahir abdicated rather than fight.

Zahir lived in exile in Italy for twenty-nine years in a large villa in the affluent community of Olgiata on Via Cassia, north of the city of Rome.  He was barred from returning to Afghanistan during Soviet-backed Communist rule in the late 1970s.

In 1991, Zahir survived an attempt on his life by a knife-wielding assassin who pretended to be a Portuguese journalist.

During the fundamentalist Islamic regime of the Taliban, Zahir remained secluded in Italy and refused to speak out against the Taliban.  Upon his return to Afghanistan in 2002, he vowed not to challenge Hamid Karzai for the presidency.

In April 2002, Zahir returned to Afghanistan while the country was under American occupation to open the Loya Jirga which met in June 2002.  After the fall of the Taliban, there were open calls for a return to the monarchy.  Zahir entertained the idea of becoming president.  However, he made it clear that he did not want to return as king.  Instead, Zahir was given the title "Father of the Nation," symbolizing his role in Afghanistan's history as a non-political symbol of national unity, even though he was an ethno-centric king during his reign.  

Hamid Karzai, a prominent figure from Zahir's clan became the president of Afghanistan and Zahir's relatives and supporters were handed over key posts in the transitional government.  Zahir moved back into his old palace but was refused to be given the throne by the Loya Jirga.  Criticisms focused on Zahir's over zealous attempts to modernize Afghanistan often putting his policies against traditional values and his failure to come to a working and stable agreement with neighboring Pakistan which also contains a significant Afghan and Pashtun population.

In an October 2002 visit to France, Zahir slipped in a bathroom, bruising his ribs and, on June 21, 2003, while in France for a medical check-up, he broke his femur by slipping again in a bathroom.  On February 3, 2004, Zahir was flown from Kabul to New Delhi, India, for medical treatment after complaining of an intestinal problem.  He was hospitalized for two weeks, and remained in New Delhi under observation.  On May 18, 2004, Zahir was brought to a hospital in the United Arab Emirates because of nose bleeding caused by heat.  

On December 7, 2004, Zahir attended the swearing in of Hamid Karzai as the President of Afghanistan.

In 2005, Zahir reportedly attempted to sell his former palace, which by then was the property of the government of Afghanistan.

In his final years, Zahir was frail and required a microphone pinned to his collar so that his faint voice could be heard.  In January 2007, Zahir was reported to be seriously ill and bedridden.  On July 23, 2007, Zahir died in the compound of the presidential palace in Kabul after a prolonged illness.  His death was announced on national television by President Karzai.  

Weak, albeit well-meaning during his forty year reign, Zahir was a symbol of a yearned for peace and unity in a nation that struggled to emerge from the turmoil that began with his 1973 ouster in a palace coup.  His return to Afghanistan from three decades of exile to bless the war-battered country's fragile course toward democracy brought hope for change.

The sons of Moḥammad Nāder Shah, Zahir and his brothers reasserted central government control during a period of anarchy and banditry in the late 1920s. Zahir Shah came to the throne at the age of 19, after the assassination of his father in November 1933, having previously served as a cabinet minister. For a number of years Zahir Shah remained in the background while his relatives ran the government, but he asserted his power through the constitution of 1964, which established a constitutional monarchy and prohibited royal relatives from holding public office.

Zahir Shah undertook a number of economic development projects, including irrigation and highway construction, backed by foreign aid, largely from the United States and the Soviet Union. He was also able to maintain Afghanistan’s neutral position in international politics. His reforms seemed to have little effect outside the Kabul area, however. In the early 1970s the country suffered drought and famine. Pashto tribes along the Pakistan border continued to press for autonomy, and the political structure in the capital was unable to deal with the country’s economic problems. In a bloodless coup on July 17, 1973, Zahir Shah was deposed. The leader of the coup, General Mohammad Daud Khan (the king’s brother-in-law), proclaimed Afghanistan a republic with himself as its president. Zahir Shah formally abdicated on August 24, 1973, and went into exile in Italy. Following the U.S. overthrow of the Taliban, he returned to Afghanistan in 2002. Zahir Shah, who publicly opposed the restoration of the monarchy and declined to run for president, was later given the honorary title Father of the Nation.



Mohammad Zahir see Zahir, Mohammed
Muhammad Zahir see Zahir, Mohammed
Zahir Shah see Zahir, Mohammed
Mohammed Zahir see Zahir, Mohammed
Mohammed Zahir Shah see Zahir, Mohammed


Zahravi, Abu al-Qasim al-
Zahravi, Abu al-Qasim al- (Abu al-Qasim al-Zahravi) (Abul Qasim al-Zahravi) (Abul Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas al-Zahravi) (Albucasis) (Abul Kasim) (Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn ʿAbbās az-Zahrāwī) (Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi) (Albucasis) (b. c. 936, near Córdoba [Spain] - d. c. 1013).  Undoubtedly the greatest surgeon of the Middle Ages.  He is best known for several original breakthroughs in surgery, as an inventor of several surgical instruments, and for his famous Medical Encyclopedia.  Al-Zahravi is considered as “Father of Modern Surgery.”

Al-Zahravi was born and brought up in Zahra, the royal suburb of Cordova (in Arabic, Qurtuba), the capital of Muslim Spain.  During this time Zahra competed in grandeur and magnificence with Baghdad and Constantinople.  Al-Zahravi served in the capacity of the court physician to King al-Hakam II of Spain.  

Al-Zahravi was a prominent surgeon.  Patients and students from all parts of Europe came to him for treatment and advice.  At this time, Cordova was the favorite destination for Europeans seeking surgical operations, and the services of al-Zahravi were much in demand.  

Al-Zahravi’s principles of medical science surpassed those of Galen in the European medical curriculum.  He is famous for his thirty volume medical encyclopedia ‘Al-Tasrif li man ajaz an-il-talif.  Three volumes of this vast encyclopedia deal with the surgical knowledge including his own inventions and procedures.  The last volume contains many diagramsand illustrations of more than two hundred surgical instruments, most of which he developed.  Al-Zahravi gave detailed descriptions of many surgical operations and their treatment, including cauterization, removal of stone from the bladder, surgery of eye, ear and throat, midwifery, removal of the dead fetus, amputation, dissection of animals, and stypics.

As an inventor of many surgical instruments, al-Zahravi is famous for developing instruments for internal examination of the ear, internal inspection of the urethra and for applying or removing foreign bodies from the throat.  He introduced such new procedures as cauterization of wounds, crushing stones inside the bladder, vivisection and dissection. He applied cauterization procedure to as many as 50 different operations.  In addition, al-Zahravi discussed the preparation of medicines and the application of such techniques as sublimation and decantation.  He prescribed the use of diuretics, sudorifics, purgatives, the absorption of pure wine and hot baths.  Al-Zahravi was the first to give detailed descriptions of hemophilia and was the first to use silk thread for stitching wounds.

Al-Zahravi was also an expert in oral surgery and dentistry.  His Al-Tasrif contains sketches of complex instruments that he developed.  He discussed the problem of non-aligned or deformed teeth and procedures to rectify these defects.  In addition, he developed the procedure for preparing and setting artificial teeth made from animal bones.

Gerard of Cremona (1114-1187) translated Al-Tasrif into Latin in the Middle Ages.  It was then translated into Hebrew, French, English and into Latin dialect of the Provencal.  Al-Zahravi’s Al-Tasrif was an essential component of the medical curriculum in European countries for many centuries.  The famous French surgeon Guy de Chauliac (1300-1368) appended its Latin edition to his own book on surgery.  Several editions of this book (surgical chapters) were published including one at Venice (1497), at Basel (1541) and at Oxford (1778).  This book was taught for approximately five centuries as a standard textbook on surgery at universities of Salerno in Italy, Montpellier in France, and several European universities.

After a long and distinguished medical career, al-Zahravi died in 1031.

Al-Zahravi was Islām’s greatest medieval surgeon, whose comprehensive medical text, combining Middle Eastern and Greco-Roman classical teachings, shaped European surgical procedures until the Renaissance.

Abū al-Qāsim was court physician to the Spanish caliph ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān III an-Nāṣir and wrote At-Taṣrīf liman ʿajazʿan at-Taʾālīf, or At-Taṣrīf (“The Method”), a medical work in 30 parts. While much of the text was based on earlier authorities, especially the Epitomae of the 7th-century Byzantine physician Paul of Aegina, it contained many original observations, including the earliest known description of hemophilia. The last chapter, with its drawings of more than 200 instruments, constitutes the first illustrated, independent work on surgery.

Although At-Taṣrīf was largely ignored by physicians of the eastern Caliphate, the surgical treatise had tremendous influence in Christian Europe. Translated into Latin in the 12th century by the scholar Gerard of Cremona, it stood for nearly 500 years as the leading textbook on surgery in Europe, preferred for its concise lucidity even to the works of the classic Greek medical authority Galen.

 
Abu al-Qasim al-Zahravi see Zahravi, Abu al-Qasim al-
Abul Qasim al-Zahravi see Zahravi, Abu al-Qasim al-
Abul Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas al-Zahravi see Zahravi, Abu al-Qasim al-
Albucasis see Zahravi, Abu al-Qasim al-
Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi  see Zahravi, Abu al-Qasim al-
Father of Modern Surgery see Zahravi, Abu al-Qasim al-


Za‘im
Za‘im.  In modern usage the word za‘im means a political leader who possesses the support of a locally circumscribed community and who retains this support by fostering or appearing to foster the interests of as many as possible from amongst his clientele.  The main distinction of this type of leadership is that it is personal and not party based in the modern sense of organizations with political or ideological grassroots.  

There is a traditional social dimension that dictates visits by the clients to the za‘im and by him on special occasions and the observance of wajibat (“obligations”) between them.  The za‘im might have a religious or community base or transcend confessional boundaries by having a local or geographic base.  He might also have a purely economic base as a large employer or landowner.  His authority also has a moral dimension and involves a certain amount of reciprocity.

Some distinguish among three different types of zu‘ama’, each referring to a different mode of political activity.  First, there are feudal zu‘ama’ who are based mainly in the countryside where large estates and traditional lordships exist and whose power rests on their position as landowners, often of ancient lineage, and their ability to give protection and patronage.  Second, there are populist politicans of the mainly Christian regions in the northern half of Lebanon where smallholdings are common who maintain leadership on a less-solid base of socio-economic power.  Leadership is derived on the one hand from the use of powers of protection and patronage to maintain political clans and on the other from some kind of ideology or program of action.  Third, there are Muslim leaders of the coastal cities who also obtain and retain leadership by ideological appeal and the exercise of patronage, but add to these a third source of power -- the manipulation of the urban masses mobilized by strongarm men or qabadays.

In modern Lebanon, za‘imship is often linked to the attainment of high office, such as membership of parliament or a ministerial post.  Political loyalty is also expressed by voting during elections.  Relations among zu‘ama’ ensure a wider availability of favors to the clients, and competition among them, especially in urban areas, provides a minimum of checks and balances to the otherwise absolute power that a za‘im may wield.

The holding of an office is also important because the za‘im provides two kinds of services: general services, such as the provision of electricity, roads, and other amenities to the region or community; or personal services, such as the provision of employment, wasta’ (mediation), and access to welfare services.  Hence the za‘im’s power can be based on the loyalty of people in his district, the relationship he has with the state or central authorities, or both.  Both wealth and frequent return to high office, giving the za‘im access to state patronage, are important components in the legitimization of his powers.

Za‘imship as a system can be described as the relations between zu‘ama’ and their clients together with the relationship between local and national zu‘ama’  in a continuous process of fine tuning of the provision of favors and services in exchange for political loyalty and power.  In this system, every transaction is connected and dependent on the other.  It is often referred to as the traditional political system as opposed to the modern one based on political parties and state institutions.

The final results of the process were not always seen as coinciding with the wider national interest, and the za‘im system was seen as a parallel or “backstage” system, which predominated over the “frontstage” of state institutions.  The clash between the system and central gvoernment, when the latter impinged on the powerbase from which the authority of the former was derived, was seen as restrictive of state sovereignty and authority and as a hindrance to the development of a strong central government.

The decline and demise of the za‘im system has been declared, but it endures and sometimes emerges stronger from crises and government reforms, for example, during the presidency of General Fuad Chehab (Fu’ad Shihab, 1958-1964), who was particularly opposed to the system.  It is also common to attack the system in political rhetoric, even by its very practitioners.

The civil war of 1975-1990 has, however, had consequences onthe system which it is still too early to fully appreciate.  The prolonged absence of state authority and institutions, the paralysis of the normal political process, the emergence of new powers in Lebanon, and the fragmentation of society must have taken their toll on the traditional system of zu‘ama’.  Whether this involves a radical structural change or simply a change in the cast of characters, with the emergence of new and different types of zu‘ama’, remains to be seen.

Zaki, Sherif

Sherif Zaki (b. November 24, 1955, Alexandria, Egypt - d. November 21, 2021, Atlanta, Georgia, United States).  A pathologist who as America's chief infectious disease detective helped identify the Covid-19, Ebola, West Nile and Zika viruses along with the severe acute respiratory syndrome -- SARS.

Sherif Ramzy Zaki was born on November 24, 1955, in Alexandria, Egypt. He spent his first six years in Chapel Hill, N.C., where his father, Ramzy Zaki, was attending graduate school. He later lived in the Caribbean, the Middle East and Europe, where his father worked for the United Nations’ International Labor Organization. His mother, Dalal (Elba) Zaki, was a teacher.

Zaki graduated second in his class of 800 from the Alexandria Medical School in Egypt in 1978. But he was less interested in practicing medicine than in unraveling mysteries, which had been an obsession of his ever since he was captivated by the novels of the British author Enid Blyton as a child.  Zaki's obsession with solving puzzles and resolving mysteries was at the heart of his work at the C.D.C

Zaki earned a master’s in pathology from Alexandria University. But since autopsies were not permitted in Egypt for religious reasons, he did his residency in anatomic pathology at Emory University in Atlanta, where he also received a doctorate in experimental pathology.

Zaki then went to work at the C.D.C. and became a naturalized American citizen. Zaki joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1988 and became chief of the agency’s infectious diseases pathology branch in the early 1990s.

Zaki and his team made strides in distinguishing rare diseases and their mutations and determining what made some of them, like SARS and Ebola, so contagious and lethal. To do so they applied a process called immunohistochemistry, which allows researchers to identify foreign pathogens by staining cells and observing them through electron microscopes capable of magnifying bacteria and viruses 740,000 times.

In 2001, after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Zaki determined that a number of people who had come into contact with letters containing a white powder had died from anthrax after their skin was exposed to the bacteria, or after inhaling it.

Zaki and his team helped identify a deadly outbreak of hantavirus in the Navajo Nation in 1993. That discovery spurred the expansion of the infectious diseases pathology branch. The expanded branch subsequently discovered a previously unidentified bacterial illness called leptospirosis in Nicaragua; and the mosquito-borne Zika virus in the brain tissue of babies in Brazil, establishing that it could be transmitted during pregnancy.

Zaki headed the agency’s Unexplained Deaths Project,  a squad of detectives of last resort responsible for delving into the causes of the 700 or so baffling fatalities from disease that occur in the United States every year.

After four people who received organ transplants in Massachusetts and Rhode Island developed a viral infection and three of them died, Dr. Zaki and his colleagues pinpointed the cause as lymphocytic choriomeningitis, a rare rodent-borne virus. It turned out that the organ donor’s daughter had a pet hamster.

In 2005, a few days after complaining to his pediatrician of a fever, a headache and an itchy scalp, a 10-year-old Mississippi boy became so agitated that he bit a relative. After the boy was hospitalized, tests were inconclusive, but he died two weeks later.

About a week after that, Zaki’s team detected rabies virus in the boy’s body. They learned from follow-up interviews that dead bats had been discovered in the boy’s home, and that he had found a live bat in his bedroom.

Zaki married Nadia Abougad.  They had two children, a daughter, Yasmin, and a son, Samy.



Zamakhshari
Zamakhshari (Abu’l-Qasim Mahmud al-Zamakhshari) (Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari) (Jar Allah - "God's neighbor") (b. March 8, 1075, Khwārezm [now in Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan] - d. June 14, 1144, Al-Jurjānīya, Khwārezm).  Persian born Arabic scholar, theologian and philologist from Khwarazm.  As a theologian, he followed the teachings of the Mu‘tazila and as a philologist, in spite of his Persian descent, he championed the absolute superiority of Arabic. His principal work is a commentary on the Qur’an.  At the very beginning of the work he declares the Qur’an created, but notwithstanding this clearly Mu‘tazila point of view, it was widely read in orthodox circles.  He also wrote grammatical works, a collection of old proverbs, and composed a series of moral discourses.

Al-Zamakhshari was a medieval Muslim scholar of Iranian origin who subscribed to the Muʿtazilite theological doctrine. He was born in Khwarezmia, but lived most of his life in Bukhara, Samarkand, and Baghdad.  His chief work is Al-Kashshāf ʿan Ḥaqāʾiq at-Tanzīl (“The Discoverer of Revealed Truths”), his exhaustive linguistic commentary on the Qurʾān.

As is true for most Muslim scholars of his era, little is known of his youth. He was apparently well-traveled and resided at least twice (once for an extended period of time) in the holy city of Mecca, where he earned his nickname, Jār Allāh. He studied at Bukhara and Samarkand (both now in Uzbekistan) and also spent time in Baghdad. At some point in his travels, one of his feet had to be amputated (probably because of frostbite), and thereafter—so the story goes—al-Zamakhsharī felt obliged to carry with him affidavits from noted citizens attesting that his foot had not been amputated as punishment for some crime.

Theologically, he was affiliated with the rationalist Muʿtazilah school. As a philologist, he considered Arabic the queen of languages, in spite of the fact that his own native tongue was Persian (and though he wrote several minor works in that latter language). His great commentary, Al-Kashshāf ʿan Ḥaqāʾiq at-Tanzīl, was written in Arabic and became the work for which he is best known. A comprehensive study of the Muslim scripture that focused on its grammatical nuance, it was completed in 1134. It was widely read, in spite of its Muʿtazilite bias, especially in the East. In the western portions of the Islamic world, his dogmatic point of view was offensive to the Mālikīyah school, though the great 14th-century Arab historian Ibn Khaldūn regarded the work highly.

Of al-Zamakhsharī’s grammatical works, Al-Mufaṣṣal fī ʿilm al-ʿArabīyah (“Detailed Treatise on Arabic Linguistics,” written 1119–21; and sometimes titled Kitāb al Mufaṣṣal fī al-Naḥw ["Detailed Treatise on Grammar"]) is celebrated for its concise but exhaustive exposition. He was also the author of a collection of old proverbs. Though well regarded, this work has been considered second to the anthology Al-Amthāl ("The Proverbs") written by his close contemporary Abū Faḍl al-Maydānī with whom al-Zamakhsharī had a notorious and somewhat undignified feud. Al-Zamakhsharī’s other works include three collections of apothegms as well as treatises on moral discourses and a number of poems.

The works of al-Zamakhshari include:

    * Al-Kashshaaf ("the Revealer") — A tafsir of the Qur'an
    * Rabi al-Abrar
    * Asasul-Balaghat dar-Lughat — Literature
    * Fasul-ul-Akhbar
    * Fraiz Dar-ilm Fariz
    * Kitab-Fastdar-Nahr
    * Muajjam-ul-Hadud
    * Manha Darusul
    * Diwan-ul-Tamsil
    * Sawaer-ul-Islam
    * Muqaddimat al-Adab (Arabic to Chorasmian Language dictionary)
    * Kitab al-Amkinah wa al-Jibal wa al-Miyah (Geography))
    * Mufassal Anmuzaj (Nahw: Arabic grammar)

Abu’l-Qasim Mahmud al-Zamakhshari see Zamakhshari


Zamindar
Zamindar (Zemindar) (Jomidar). Term which refers to a landowner.  Under the Mughals of India, the zamindar was a person who has a right to collect revenues from the land.  

In India, a zamindar was a holder or occupier (dār) of land (zamīn). The root words are Persian, and the resulting name was widely used wherever Persian influence was spread by the Mughals or other Indian Muslim dynasties. The meanings attached to it were various. In Bengal the word denoted a hereditary tax collector who could retain 10 percent of the revenue he collected. In the late 18th century the British government made these zamindars landowners, thus creating a landed aristocracy in Bengal and Bihar that lasted until Indian independence (1947). In parts of north India (e.g., Uttar Pradesh), a zamindar denoted a large landowner with full proprietary rights. More generally in north India, zamindar denoted the cultivator of the soil or joint proprietors holding village lands in common as joint heirs. In Maratha territories the name was generally applied to all local hereditary revenue officers.

A zamindar or zemindar, was an official employed by the Mughals to collect taxes from Ryots (peasants). The zamindari system used the existing structure of the bhuiyan land tenure system of the pre-Mughal era by the Mughals as a key economic and political institution to implement the sharia-based Islamic rule over the "zimmis". The practice was continued under British rule with colonial landholders. After independence, however, the system was abolished in India and East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh). It is still current in modern Pakistan.

Other terms were and are used in various provinces. For example, a zamindar is known as a wadera in Sindh. In Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya pradesh, Himachal pradesh, Haryana, Uttrakhand, Chhatisgarh, and Bihar it is thakur. In the Punjab and Haryana, many different terms occur, such as chaudhary, lambardar, and sardar. Malik is an Arabic term used in the Punjab which literally means "king". The word zamindar itself comes ultimately from Persian zamīn, "earth", and the common suffix -dār, "-holder".


Zemindar see Zamindar
Jomidar see Zamindar

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